It frequently may be useful to secure a container to another item. For example, it may be useful to readily secure a hand sanitizer bottle to a backpack.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, some prior art bottles have been provided with an opening or ring, potentially for attachment of a clip, such as a traditional carabiner and/or spring clip. However, one of the shortcomings of the prior art in this regard may have been the need for additional components, such as a separate clip, and/or any related time, trouble and/or effort required for assembly.
There may have existed blow molded bottles having clip portions in the prior art. Such prior art bottles may have been blow molded with their clip portions in a closed configuration—i.e., molded with one or more parts in a net-shape.
In use, an arm portion of a clip on such a prior art container may have been semi or fully depressed from the closed configuration to permit the container's clip to pass through a detente or catch provided on another item. Ideally, the arm portion of such container's clip would then be returned to the closed configuration (from the depressed or semi-depressed configuration) to secure the container to the other item.
Alternately, such prior art bottles may have been molded with their clip portions in a semi-depressed (i.e., slightly closed) configuration, potentially relying upon a desired shrinkage of the bottles' plastic material during cooling to cause their clip portions to warp and/or deform into a closed clip configuration.
Other prior art methods for providing a clip portion in a blow molded bottle may have involved molding the clip portion in a semi-depressed geometry and then—as a post-process—manually pushing and/or positioning the clip into a closed configuration, and applying heat to a hinge-point of the bottle's clip portion, such as to encourage material of the hinge-point to thermally set into the closed configuration.
Prior art polyethylene materials may have provided mechanical “springback” properties.
Prior art containers (and/or clip portions thereof), materials and/or related blow molding and/or materials technologies may have inadequately provided for secure releasable fastening of such containers to other items, for clips biased towards a securely closed configuration, and/or for any “springback” properties which may have been sought. It may be readily appreciated by or suggested to those skilled in the art—in view of the disclosures herein—that there have been one or more disadvantages or shortcomings associated with the prior art, or that the prior art has failed to meet one or more needs or to provide certain previously unforeseen advantages such as now afforded by the invention.
It is an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate one or more disadvantages and/or shortcomings associated with the prior art, to meet or provide for one or more needs and/or advantages, and/or to achieve one or more objects of the invention—one or more of which may preferably be readily appreciable by and/or suggested to those skilled in the art in view of the teachings and/or disclosures hereof.